He went fishing for the serpent that circles the world. He dressed as a bride to get his hammer back. And at the end of the world, he took nine steps.

Who was Thor really? In this second episode of Gods of the North, we follow the god of thunder through the old Norse sources: his family and his hall of 540 rooms, the forging of Mjölnir and the goats he ate and raised again, the illusions of Útgarða-Loki, the duel with the stone giant Hrungnir, the river Vimur and the giant Geirröðr, the theft of the hammer in Þrymskviða, and his last battle with the World Serpent at Ragnarök. Then we step outside the myths to the historical Thor: Donar's Oak, the temple at Uppsala, Thursday, the runestones, and the thousand hammer pendants worn across the Viking world.

Every story is identified by its source, and where the sources disagree, both versions are given.

Previous episode: Odin, the All-Father.
Next episode: Loki.

CHAPTERS
0:00 The Fishing Trip
1:34 Where the Stories Come From
2:30 The Son of Odin and Earth
4:33 The Hammer and the Goats
8:10 The Hall of Útgarða-Loki
11:49 The Duel with Hrungnir
14:57 Thor and Geirröðr
17:09 The Theft of the Hammer
20:00 Thor Among the Gods
21:12 The World Serpent
23:03 Ragnarök
23:56 The Real Thor
27:11 Epilogue

SOURCES

Primary sources (in translation)
- The Poetic Edda, trans. Henry Adams Bellows (1923): Völuspá, Grímnismál, Vafþrúðnismál, Hymiskviða, Þrymskviða, Hárbarðsljóð, Alvíssmál, Lokasenna
Index: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/index.htm
- Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda, trans. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916): Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál
Gylfaginning: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre04.htm
Skáldskaparmál: https://sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre05.htm
- Skaldic poems (preserved in Skáldskaparmál): Bragi Boddason, Ragnarsdrápa (9th c.); Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, Haustlöng (c. 900); Úlfr Uggason, Húsdrápa (c. 985); Eilífr Goðrúnarson, Þórsdrápa (c. 1000)
- Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar in Flateyjarbók (Thor's red beard)
- Tacitus, Germania (ch. 3 and 9)
- Willibald, Life of Saint Boniface (Donar's Oak at Geismar)
- Adam of Bremen, Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, book IV, ch. 26–27 (the temple at Uppsala)

Archaeology
- Altuna runestone (U 1161), Uppland, Sweden; Hørdum stone, Thy, Denmark; Gosforth fishing stone, Cumbria, England (Thor's fishing trip)
- Glavendrup (DR 209) and Sønder Kirkeby (DR 220) runestones, Denmark; Velanda runestone (Vg 150), Sweden ("May Thor hallow")
- Thor's hammer pendants (around 1,000 known) and the Trendgården soapstone mould, Denmark, late 10th c.
- The Eyrarland statue, Iceland, c. 1000, National Museum of Iceland

Scholarship
- John Lindow, Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs (Oxford University Press, 2001)
- Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology (1993)

Quotations from the Eddas use the public-domain Bellows and Brodeur translations. Stanza numbers follow Bellows; other editions may number some stanzas differently.

#NorseMythology #Thor #Vikings